Arbeitsblatt: Best Day of my Life

Best Day of My Life by American Authors Link to the YouTube video: Lead in: What songs are you listening to right now? What is your favorite song? Who is your favorite artist/ band? What do you like to do when listening to music? Discuss in groups of 4 and make list and/or discuss in the whole class. Listening: Now we are going to listen to the song chose. Listen to it, what do you hear? What do you understand? What are words you have heard? Discuss with your neighbor. (listening for gist) For the second time will distribute one part of the lyrics which has gaps in it. You will listen to the song and try to find the words missing. Try and fill in the gaps. (listening for specific information) After maybe listening to this part twice look at your solutions with your neighbor and then look at it in class. Reading: (reading for gist what is the song about) Read the rest of the lyrics (page two, with your neighbor try and find out what the song is about and compare your solutions. Does what you have read match with what you have understood when you listened to the song the first time? What is similar/ the same; what is different of what you have heard? Why do you think that is? Writing: Write down (into your English book) 10 words you understood and 5 words you dont know yet when everyone has done that mingle maybe someone knows word you dont know yet try to explain (Speaking using body language): dont translate (if you dont know how to explain come ask me or look the word up in dictionary and use your body!). Then everyone has to show/ explain word they have just learned in class the others have to find out what word the student is talking about. (Like the game tabu). When the others found out what the student was talking about, the student will spell the word (à he gets it into his brain, the others can see it) Grammar point: (Getting to know the tense going-to Future: to be (in present) going to infinitive) Look at the lyrics again. What words do you see that indicate (tell us) that something is in the future? Try and underline all the words that say something is going to happen in the future. After letting them have look at it, look at it in class. Discuss what they have found and build up on that: The lyrics of the song says: is gonna be While this is the way to say something is going to happen it is much more the spoken form than the actual tense form: For this you will need the verb to be in the present form (- Go through them briefly) Let them think and then look at it together. Now adding to it you need going to an infinitive An infinitive is the verb in its basic form. What verbs do you know? Collect the verbs on the blackboard (maybe give them an example) So now think about this sentence: am going to swim. How would you say this sentence in your language (Swiss german: Ich gang go schwümme German: Ich werde schwimmen gehen Spanish: Voy nadar. French: Je vais nager Holländisch: Ik ga zwemmen) Now with looking at this chart (separate document at the end of the blog entry) tell your neighbor what you are going to do tonight, tomorrow or this weekend. CLIL approach: not only in English class but also using English songs in the subject music (English as by-product) TBL approach of the lesson: find words that indicate the future tense Assessment options: Lead in: Are they participating in speaking or not? If yes how do they articulate themselves can they form correct sentences? do they use body language for words they dont know? Listening: Go around and listen to what they have heard and what they are talking about same criteria as in the lead in Look at the gaps how much did they understand (Writing) how many words did they get? did they fill in the right words? did they spell them correctly? Reading: Can the kids use the subskill reading for gist? do they find out what the song is about? Writing: Look at the words they have written down Are they spelled correctly? What words are they? Can they explain themselves show it with body language Grammar point: At the end of the lesson Can they already form going-to sentence? Discussion of the advantages and disadvantages Advantages: 1. Students (especially children) are more motivated when one uses song. For that one could also choose song the students really like 2. The focus in the reading part is on gist-reading, therefore they learn very important subskill So, they learn that they dont always have to understand every single word to know what text is about. Disadvantages: 1. disadvantage with songs is, that the grammar is often not as it is out of school books. In this particular song the future tense going to is only used with the abbreviation gonna. Therefore, the students might not understand why this is the same tense. Nonetheless, it broadens their mind that not only there is right grammar understanding of language but also its use in the daily life. 2. Since the reading activity mainly focuses on gist-reading there should also be an activity that uses different subskill. That is also why did the activity in writing. This way the students still go through the text in detail. Reference to Lehrplan 21: FS1E.1 Listening B. Strategies a) can transfer and use known listening strategies from German and other languages when supported (e.g. listen several times, pay attention to noises, sentence melody, pay attention to gestures and facial expressions) b) can hear individual words that are known from other languages (e.g. parallel words, known words, names, numbers) c) can use listening strategies, when they are supported () FS1E.2 Reading B. Strategies b) can recognize individual words which are known from other languages (e.g. parallel words, known words, names, numbers) c) can use reading strategies, when supported () FS1E.3 Speaking A. Conversational Speaking b) can communicate in an easy way in familiar situations if the interlocutors are considerate and helpful c) can exchange and obtain information in daily situations and in simple words. FS1E.4 Writing A. Produce written text a) can make lists with known words can capture the most important elements of story b) FS1E.5 Focus on language(s) D. Grammar a) can research individual grammatical structures under supervision, compare them with other languages and make assumptions about them in German